An Unfair Comparison
by Mikauzoran
Summary: In which Kaito is not always a jerk, Hakuba is a closet history geek, and Keiko gains some self-confidence as the gang takes a class trip to Kyoto, appreciates the local specialties, and hits up the cultural heritage sites.


Mikau: Hi all! Thanks for checking this out! At the last minute, I decided that I wanted to enter Poirot Café's Super Short Contest: Peach. So here's a story following the Ekoda High gang featuring Momoi Keiko in honor of that theme. I hope you enjoy it.

Disclaimer: If I owned it, there would be a lot more scenes of the gang just hanging out. This murder mystery series has too many murders interrupting the characters' downtime. What about work-life balance?

…...

An Unfair Comparison

The class trip to Kyoto was well into its third day, and Ekoda Class 2B was taking a break at the rest area at the bottom of the hill leading up to Kiyomizudera. Many students were exploring the shops that lined the hillside while others were checking out the numerous local eateries in the area.

Aoko's group had gotten caught up in tasting all the local snacks that the vendors were passing out free samples of. So far the strawberry chocolate yatsuhashi was the favorite.

"I thought it was all right, though, I really do like more traditional Japanese flavors better," Hakuba remarked after sampling the chocolate banana version of the treat.

"Like red bean paste and green tea?" Kaito snickered.

"Precisely," Hakuba agreed, missing the teasing tone in Kaito's voice.

"You would think you'd like the foreign flavors better since you didn't grow up here," Aoko mused before getting distracted by a shopkeeper offering her a sample of a senbei cracker.

"I think it's interesting how Hakuba-kun is more Japanese in his sensibilities than the rest of us _despite_ growing up abroad," Keiko pitched in helpfully, lengthening her stride to fall in step beside the two boys.

"It's because he's secretly a fanboy of all things Japanese," Kaito informed with a smirk. "You should have seen him earlier at Nijo Castle when we found that gacha-gacha that dispensed phone straps with the crests of the Sengoku Jidai clans on it. He spent, like 2,000 yen trying to get both Tokugawa Ieyasu and Toyotomi Hideyoshi's."

"Meanwhile _you_ spent just as much attempting to get a Tiger Bean strap out of the Mameshiba machine," Hakuba snapped indignantly. "Maybe I just have refined tastes and appreciate relics of historical events that shaped our country into the fine nation that it is today."

"So you collect Churchill and Thatcher paraphernalia too?" Kaito hummed judgmentally.

"So what if I do?" Hakuba snorted.

"Don't tease poor Hakuba-kun so much," Aoko admonished, giving Kaito a light smack on the arm as she rejoined the others.

Kaito opened his mouth to turn his efforts at annoyance onto his childhood friend when Keiko, anticipating this and not wanting her group to make a scene out in public, suggested they all get a snack to tide them over until dinner.

"I think I saw a crepe shop at the bottom of the hill where the path turns. It's right by the rest area where we're supposed to meet up, so…" She smiled encouragingly at Saguru. "They have traditional crepe flavors as well as chocolate cheesecake and ice cream-filled ones," she added for Kaito's benefit.

Kaito shrugged. "I'm game."

"Aoko wants blueberry cheesecake!" the inspector's daughter trilled happily. "Kaito, you go save us a picnic table while we get the crepes." As an afterthought, Aoko added, "Why don't you go with him, Keiko-chan? Just to make sure he doesn't get distracted and wonder off, shirking his duties."

"I don't shirk!" Kaito protested, whining loudly.

"Kuroba, like Tom Sawyer, you shirk with the best of them," Hakuba chuckled.

"Then go prove yourself by not shirking under Keiko-chan's supervision," Aoko challenged, and it was decided that Kaito and Keiko would go save a spot for the group while Hakuba went with Aoko to help carry the crepes.

The rest area where other students and tourists were milling about by the row of vending machines was fairly crowded, but Keiko and Kaito were eventually able to secure a spot when some college students got up to leave.

Once they had settled in, an awkward silence fell between the two, and Kaito realized, "We don't really talk much, do we?"

Keiko blinked, adjusted her glasses, and smiled sheepishly. "No…. We really don't." She bit her lip as she searched for a topic to pass the time until Hakuba and Aoko would return, putting the pair back into a dynamic they were comfortable with.

Unfortunately, the crepe shop line was long, and neither Keiko nor Kaito could come up with anything better than an analysis of the weather and a half-hearted discussion of their favorite tourist attractions so far.

Two-thirds of the way through Keiko's thoughts on the deer they'd seen the day before in Nara, a geisha walking up the path in her breathtaking kimono and impressively sculpted split-peach hairstyle caught Keiko's eye.

Kaito turned around to see what had grabbed his companion's attention and, noting the geisha, nodded. He was about to seize the chance to strike up a conversation about how hard geisha worked and how long they had to study to become masters of their craft when he noticed that Keiko was self-consciously stroking her pigtails, biting her lip, and adjusting her glasses, a melancholy, dissatisfied look on her face.

"It's not like they roll out of bed like that," Kaito remarked with a shrug of his shoulder, drawing Keiko out of her thoughts.

"W-What?" She blinked, eyes refocusing on Kaito.

"Geisha put a lot of time and effort into their appearance because it's a part of their job," he informed. "You could look like that too, if you wanted…if you were willing to spend _hours_ of your day on hair, makeup, and clothes. It's not like they're inherently prettier than you or anything, so you shouldn't waste your time comparing yourself to them. You end up selling yourself short, and that's just not fair to you."

Keiko's eyes widened, and a cherry blossom blush lit up her cheeks. "Kaito-kun…That's really sweet of you," she chuckled.

Kaito shrugged again, shifting slightly in embarrassment. "Well, I'm not a total jerk all the time. Besides. It kind of ticks me off seeing girls get unhappy because they think they're not pretty enough. Do me a favor, and only compare yourself to you. You're pretty enough, Keiko-chan."

"T-Thank you," Keiko sputtered, taken aback as her heart skipped. "Do you really think so?" she whispered, but her question was drowned out by the arrival of Aoko and Hakuba with the crepes.

Regardless, Keiko smiled to herself, treasuring Kaito's words in her heart. If others thought she was already pretty enough, maybe she could believe it herself.

The

End

…...

Mikau: There. Thank you so much for reading. I hope you enjoyed that. Let me know what you thought! ^o^ Keiko needs more love. She never gets to shine in the series.

Also, I feel like I should explain. **Yatsuhashi** are a Kyoto specialty. The name means "eight bridges". They're kind of like mochi, but they're triangular shaped. I do recommend the chocolate and banana flavored ones, but the green tea ones with red bean filling are my favorite. **Senbei** are a type of cracker. You can buy packs to feed to the deer in Nara, but humans eat them as snacks too. A **gacha-gacha** (named after the sound they make) is kind of like a gumball machine that dispenses toys and phone straps (among other things) in capsules. The one in Nijo Castle did exist when I was there five years ago. I got the Takeda Clan crest. ^.^ The Mameshiba one is (was) real too, but it wasn't at the castle. I never got Tiger Bean. -.-; Yes, **crepes** do come in ridiculous flavors in Japan. You can get them with an entire piece of cheesecake and a scoop of ice cream inside of one crepe. I encourage you to look up pictures of Japanese crepes. Anyway, I hope you had fun reading this. Take care!


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